Some residents want out from under San Diego’s rule, saying La Jolla would be better off as its own city.

Some parents have talked about La Jolla schools splitting from the San Diego Unified School District, too.

The community is even on a mission to try to save its seven shoreline fire pits, while the city is removing the ones elsewhere because it’s broke and can’t afford to clean them.

So the angry, put-off folks of La Jolla are angling to make their own place with smoother streets, better schools and toastier marshmallows.

Why such extreme measures?

Well, La Jolla is fed up with how San Diego can’t deliver key services like it used to.

People here say you don’t mess with a jewel. And they have the means, unlike other communities, to do something about it.

“From a long-term standpoint, the city would really be losing something if it lets La Jolla go to seed,” said Paul Kennerson, a La Jolla lawyer who has pushed for secession from San Diego in the past. “It has the vibe and the reputation that you really need to preserve.”

The secession movement, a perennial, is once again becoming a hot topic in La Jolla. Proponents even have a logo. This time, momentum may be growing because of how the community is suffering from widespread decay.

La Jolla? They make it sound like a dump.

I checked it out. I did see potholes and weeds and gum on the sidewalks.

“People are fed up,” said Melinda Merryweather, vice president of Independent La Jolla, a group pushing for the withdrawal.

One problem they keep running into is that outsiders view them as “spoiled La Jolla fat cats,” she said. They get zero sympathy.

People in the movement simply want to improve La Jolla — for everybody, Merryweather said.

“You can’t remove La Jolla,” she said. “You can’t get a helicopter and lift it and put it someplace else. It’ll still be here, just better.”

But what are the odds?

Not good.

The whole city of San Diego has to vote on that. It would take a 50 percent vote, plus one. An election is also held in La Jolla, to see if the residents want to go. It’s hard to pull off because cities don’t like losing viable, revenue-rich communities.

One idea is to lobby for a change in the state law that would allow communities to decide for themselves whether to split, not requiring walking papers from the rest of the city.

Breaking from the school district would also be a push, according to members of a new organization, The La Jolla Cluster Association.

That’s a group of parents and teachers from different La Jolla schools who have joined together to have a stronger voice in the San Diego Unified School District.

There’s been talk about creating a special coastal district, but the organization isn’t taking any steps in that direction at this point, said Sharon Jones, a La Jolla Cluster member.

The group knows it would take years to clear all the necessary hurdles and then a vote would have to take place.

“Think a real bad La Jolla divorce :-),” according to the organization’s website.

Even saving the fire pits looks like it’s going to go down in flames.

The city says funding is needed to keep all 186 pits in the city glowing. It can’t service a select few. So La Jolla, which has the means, will lose the pits if the money for all of them isn’t raised.

“Things like this get very frustrating,” said Phyllis Pheiffer, chair of the La Jolla Community Foundation, which wants to donate the money.

No doubt.

But San Diego without La Jolla would be like the Padres without Adrian Gonzalez.